Koke rues Atletico Madrid’s defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League last 16 second leg at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Goals from Hakim Ziyech and Emerson were all Chelsea needed to claim victory having defeated the La Liga leaders in the first leg by 1-0 at Bucharest.

“Today is a difficult day,” Koke said post-match in comments carried by Marca. “We were all very excited about this competition, but we’ve always been on the back foot.

“In the first leg we weren’t as we should have been. Today, in the first half, they found spaces. We looked for solutions at half-time, but we couldn’t find them. After the red card, their second goal came and really killed us.”

Koke was defiant, however, when asked whether he doubted the strength of his team. “If we had doubts we wouldn’t go out to play. I have maximum confidence in this team, that we’re playing a great league season and we can become champions. Now we have Alaves, which is a final.”

Photo Credit: Atletienglish/Twitter